What are the four species of Leviticus 23:40, and how does the Talmud identify them?

Sukkah 35a identifies: peri etz hadar (fruit of majestic trees) = etrog (citron); kapot temarim (branches of palm trees) = lulav; anaf etz avot (boughs of leafy trees) = hadasim (myrtle); arvei nachal (willows of the brook) = aravot (willow). Three myrtles and two willows are bound together with the palm branch; the etrog is held separately. All four must be present and valid — a single missing or defective species invalidates the commandment.

What is the Midrashic meaning of the four species?

Leviticus Rabbah 30:12 teaches: the etrog has both taste (Torah learning) and fragrance (good deeds); the lulav has taste but no fragrance; the myrtle has fragrance but no taste; the willow has neither. Bound together, they represent the full spectrum of Jews — the learned and righteous, the learned but not righteous, the righteous but not learned, and the neither. The four are taken together because the whole community, in its diversity, fulfills the commandment.

Why is the lulav waved in six directions?

Sukkah 37b gives two reasons: to acknowledge God's dominion over all directions (north, south, east, west, up, down) — no direction exists outside God's sovereignty; and to "deflect evil forces" from every direction. The waving is a bodily declaration: standing with the lulav and sweeping it through all six directions, you perform in space what the Shema declares in words — that God's presence has no boundary.

What makes the commandment to "rejoice" before God unusual?

Most commandments prescribe actions; few explicitly command an emotional state. Sukkot is called "Zman Simchatenu" — the Season of Our Joy — because Leviticus 23:40 commands not just the action (take the species) but its accompanying state (rejoice). The Talmud (Sukkah 37b) understands the rejoicing as integral to the waving: the lulav is moved with joy, not solemnly. The commandment insists that the relationship with God involves emotional celebration, not only solemn performance.

What did Nehemiah 8:15's branch-gathering reveal about how the people understood Leviticus 23:40?

When the people heard that they should build sukkot and gather branches, they immediately went out to the hills — gathering olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and shade tree branches. The response was active and joyful, not deliberate or reluctant. The connection between Nehemiah 8:15 and Leviticus 23:40 shows that the people understood the commandment's spirit — gathering living branches, going to the green hills — as part of what made Sukkot the Season of Joy.

Commandment #205 · Positive · Sabbath & Holy Days

Take Branches of Luxuriant Trees and Rejoice Before God: Lulav and Etrog

לֻלָב וְאֶתְרוֹג

Source: Leviticus 23:40 · Maimonides, Laws of Lulav 7:1

Leviticus 23:40 commands four things: Leviticus 23:40 — "take for yourselves on the first day: peri etz hadar (fruit of majestic trees), kapot temarim (palm branches), anaf etz avot (boughs of leafy trees), and arvei nachal (willows of the brook) — and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days." The Talmud (Sukkah 35a) identifies the four: peri etz hadar = etrog (citron), kapot temarim = lulav (palm), anaf etz avot = hadasim (myrtle), arvei nachal = aravot (willow). Together these are the "arba minim" — the four species, or simply "the lulav," as the lulav palm branch is the largest and most visible.

The Four Species: What They Are and Why They Are Bound Together

וּלְקַחְתֶּם לָכֶם בַּיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן פְּרִי עֵץ הָדָר כַּפֹּת תְּמָרִים וַעֲנַף עֵץ עָבֹ

"On the first day you are to take branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy trees—and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days."

Leviticus 23:40 — Open in Torah Reader

The Mishnah (Sukkah 3:1–9) specifies validity requirements: the etrog must be free of blemishes; the lulav must be straight and its top leaves not separated; the myrtle must have three leaves at each node; the willow must be green. Three hadasim (myrtles) and two aravot (willows) are bound with the lulav using palm-leaf rings. The etrog is held separately in the left hand while the lulav bundle is held in the right. All four must be present: if even one species is missing, the commandment is not fulfilled.

Why four? The Midrash (Leviticus Rabbah 30:12) offers the famous teaching: the four species represent four types of Jews — the etrog has both taste and fragrance (Torah learning AND good deeds), the lulav has taste but no fragrance (Torah learning without good deeds), the myrtle has fragrance but no taste (good deeds without Torah), the willow has neither (neither). When all four are bound together, the community includes and redeems each type. No individual can fulfill the commandment alone if the community is not whole.

Wave in Six Directions: Declaring God's Universal Presence

The waving of the lulav (nanuim) is performed by moving the bundle in the six directions: east (forward), south (right), west (backward), north (left), up, and down. The Talmud (Sukkah 37b) gives two reasons: (1) to acknowledge that God is the master of all directions and all space; (2) to deflect evil forces that come from any direction ("for the sake of the One who has dominion over the four directions and heaven and earth"). The waving is not arbitrary — it is a spatial declaration, an acknowledgment performed with the body that no direction exists that is outside God's sovereignty.

"Usmachtem lifnei Adonai Eloheichem" — "and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God." The commandment's object is joy: Sukkot is called "Zman Simchatenu" — the Season of Our Joy. The four species are not sacred objects in themselves; they are props of celebration. Psalm 96:11: "Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it!" The Psalmist's cosmic joy is what Leviticus 23:40's lulav and etrog are meant to embody: joy before God that involves the whole body, the whole community, and points to the whole cosmos.

Key Figures

The Hasmonean Coins

After the Maccabean revolt (167–160 BCE), Hasmonean coins frequently bore the image of a lulav and etrog — the four species of Leviticus 23:40. The choice of these Temple-festival symbols on national currency shows how deeply the Sukkot commandment was embedded in Israelite national identity during the Second Temple period. The lulav was not merely a religious object; it was a symbol of Jewish independence, Temple service, and covenantal identity — the image the Hasmoneans chose to represent their restored kingdom.

Nehemiah 8:15 and the Branch-Gathering

Nehemiah 8:15: "Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive trees, wild olive trees, myrtle, palm, and shade trees, to make temporary shelters." This is the Hakhel rediscovery of Sukkot: the people hear the commandment and immediately go out to gather branches — the raw material for both sukkot (the shelters) and the lulav bundle. Nehemiah 8 presents the rediscovery of Sukkot not as an abstract legal recovery but as an immediate, joyful physical act of going out to the hills to gather living branches.

Study Questions

For reflection and group study

How does the Midrash's interpretation of the four species (Leviticus Rabbah 30:12) — each species representing a type of Jew — transform the commandment from an individual obligation into a communal statement?

What is the significance of waving the lulav in all six directions — and what theological claim does this spatial act make?

Why must all four species be present for the commandment to be valid? What principle underlies the invalidation of the mitzvah if even one species is missing?

How does Leviticus 23:40's explicit command to "rejoice before the LORD" distinguish this commandment from others — and what kind of joy is the text pointing to?

What does the presence of lulav and etrog imagery on Hasmonean coins reveal about how the four-species commandment was understood in terms of national and covenantal identity?

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